The Stories Behind Premium Fashion Watch Brands

If you’re going to tie your outfit together, then you’ll need a few choice accessories. These are the flourishes that help cement your visual identity, and which ensure that, whatever you’re wearing, you still look and feel like yourself. And there are few more practical men’s accessories than a decent wristwatch. However convenient it might be to whip out your phone whenever you’d like to check the time, there’s nothing quite like glancing down at the face of a high-quality wristwatch. Given that you’re going to be wearing your watch every day, it’s worth investing accordingly. There’s nothing more likely to let down a high-quality get-up than a cheap, tacky watch. Here at Gents, we stock men’s watches from several big names, and we thought it might be worthwhile to take a closer look at exactly what makes them such a big deal.

Hugo Boss

Hugo Boss is one of the oldest fashion companies on the planet. It’s notorious for being the designer that supplied the Nazi party. The founder, Hugo Ferdinand Boss, would die shortly after the end of the Second World War, and thus wouldn’t see his company’s recovery from the ban placed on the company following the end of the conflict. Nowadays, the company recognises this chapter in their story, though they’re obviously eager to point out how much things have changed since then: you’ll find an abridged version of Roman Köster’s history of the period over on the Hugo Boss website.

The company’s relationship with wristwatches didn’t come until quite a bit later; they were granted their first watch licence in 1996. Hugo Boss’s watches, like Tommy Hilfiger and Lacoste ones, are produced by Movado Group. As such, you can expect quality on a rough par with the other brands we’ve mentioned here. Be sure to check out the select few watches we have in stock, including the crocodile-effect Hugo Boss Ambassador and the dial-heavy Hugo Boss Driver men’s watch.

Emporio Armani

The Armani family is one of the biggest names in world fashion. Their second brand, Emporio Armani, is reserved for innovative modern designs, and is thereby distinct from the more classic stuff you might associate with the name. The company’s founder, Georgio Armani, cut his teeth in Milan department stores before going on to design clothing on a freelance basis throughout the sixties. He used the experience gained from this to great effect when he established the company in 1975, along with his friend Sergio Galeotti.

The story will probably lend some encouragement to those of us who’ve gotten to our thirties without ever establishing all-conquering businesses. Armani himself was in his forties when he got his venture started; Galeotti persuaded the man to sell his car and start a tiny two-person operation that would, in just a few years, conquer the world. The Emporio brand came to be in the early 1980s, following the success of the ‘Georgio’ brand in the 70s. It’s the name emblazoned across the high-quality Armani watches you’ll find right here on the Gents store.

You’ll find a couple of fantastic Emporio Armani watches on the pages of our website. These include the leather strapped Emporio Armani Beta and the Emporio Armani Luigi stainless-steel wristwatch. Both exude quality, and they’re versatile enough to match with a range of outfits.

Tommy Hilfiger

Tommy Hilfiger was born in New York in the 50s to Catholic Parents. He had eight brothers and sisters, and his father was a watchmaker. After a stint working in a clothes shop in the late 60s, he decided to open his own store, called ‘People’s Place’. He pumped his savings into the venture, and it paid off. The stuff he brought in himself, however, wasn’t quite up to scratch, and thus he decided that he’d like to design some of his own. It was at this point that he realised where his talent really lay: designing.

Unfortunately, the People’s Place was forced into bankruptcy in the late 70s, following local recession in New York. He worked freelance as a designer for a while, but his lack of industry experience in fashion prevented him from finding secure work. Eventually, he met an Indian businessman named Mohan Murajani, and the two established a business together. When the resulting company floated on the New York Stock Exchange in the early 90s, the growth was exponential – but difficult to sustain. Shareholders clamoured for non-stop growth at the same rate, and, in 2006, the company went private again.

You’ll find some of Tommy Hilfiger’s current output right here on our site, including this cream-faced Tommy Hilfiger Gabe men’s watch with a brown leather strap. It’s stylish, bold and elegant – in much the same way as the rest of the Tommy Hilfiger catalogue.

Lacoste

This French company was founded in 1933 by a tennis player names Rene Lacoste, who earned the nickname ‘the crocodile’ thanks to his on-court personality. It’s this animal that graces the front of all Lacoste products.

This brand has a slightly sportier reputation than some of the other big names we’ll mention here. In recent decades, its reputation has been bolstered through partnerships with big-name tennis players and golfers, including Novak Djokovic. Thus, if you spend a lot of time enjoying this sort of outdoor sport, you’ll probably be familiar with the crocodile logo.

Lacoste, is, naturally, most famous for its line of high-quality polo shirts. But the innovation didn’t stop there – a string of patents followed as the company incrementally improved its line of tennis rackets, and by the 1960s the company had even branched out into skiwear, sponsoring the 1968 French Winter Olympic team.

Among the more recent devices to bear the famous crocodile are, of course, high-quality designer wrist watches. You’ll find gorgeous specimens right here on our website, including this stylish dark-blue Lacoste Westport men’s watch, complete with rose-gold plated stainless steel. It’s rugged enough to stand up to the water from your shower, but not quite enough to get through high-impact water sports.